***OFFICIAL MINNESOTA VS WEST VIRGINIA GUARANTEED RATE BOWL IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

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I saw Jah Joyner have a couple nice reps at End, did any other young guys stand out? I saw Geers get in at TE and Boe played C, but I admittedly did not focus on their individual run blocking. He didn't really have to make a play, but it was still nice to see Dixon have an interception as another guy we'll count on to play a larger role at some point.

Are we done with the wildcat? Second straight game where Kramer hasn't seen the field. Hopefully he's not injured and this is more of a philosophical change.

Edit: One last thing and I don't want to make a big deal of it, but the timeout at the end by PJ struck me as odd. I could understand it against Wisconsin, but in this scenario where we were going out of our way to not score at the end it seemed to kind of show up WVU which I am sure was not the intent. To see Kieft almost get hurt on the 3rd down prior to the timeout was rough. In the future I'd hope we'd just score the TD or do the regular kneel 4 times and give them 20 seconds instead of 6 or whatever.
 
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Bob_Loblaw said:
What did you see tonight that made you think this?

He was 8-13? Two of the incompletes were 100% because of the field/slips.
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I'm a little miffed by the Tanner bashing tonight as well. We are all aware of Tanner's limitations, but I'm sick of this narrative that PJ and the coaches aren't giving anyone else a shot. Not sure why it's so hard to accept that we don't currently have a better option. If Clark becomes an All-American at Rice I will eat my words, but come on. The sack he took on that flea flicker was an absolutely awful play, but otherwise he didn't play a horrible game. Not a great one by any means, but I'm not going to fault him for an INT where the receiver slipped and fell. The Tanner criticisms are just getting lazy and annoying on this board.
 

RolGnav said:
Seriously, there better be a real QB competition next year... Morgan just isn't consistent enough.
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Tanner isn't coming back to sit for his 6th year. That discussion has been had already or he wouldn't be coming back.
 

Gophers1992 said:
I'm a little miffed by the Tanner bashing tonight as well. We are all aware of Tanner's limitations, but I'm sick of this narrative that PJ and the coaches aren't giving anyone else a shot. Not sure why it's so hard to accept that we don't currently have a better option. If Clark becomes an All-American at Rice I will eat my words, but come on. The sack he took on that flea flicker was an absolutely awful play, but otherwise he didn't play a horrible game. Not a great one by any means, but I'm not going to fault him for an INT where the receiver slipped and fell. The Tanner criticisms are just getting lazy and annoying on this board.
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Except that ball was thrown behind MBS and he slipped while adjusting for the ball.
 





Bob_Loblaw said:
What did you see tonight that made you think this?

He was 8-13? Two of the incompletes were 100% because of the field/slips.
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Sometimes for me it's the 13 attempts. It seems like our staff doesn't think we can throw the ball. Is that the qb or receivers?

We seem afraid to throw. I've had that feeling all year.
 

SonjayLarrick said:
and if the ball wasn't thrown behind him.
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I rewatched that play a few times. Hard to say if MBS was supposed to be coming straight back or going to the sideline. If he was going to the sideline there wouldn't have been much room and would have been an odd route. I think the throw looked a lot worse due to him slipping.
 




Great Plains Gopher said:
Terrible. That is virtue-signaling by Fleck that is an insult to the paying audience. Run the ball, score or not, but don't put on a two-minute show that basically insults the other team when you have only 18 points. Up forty, maybe, but not 18-6.
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Agreed. Put in backups and if they score, they score.
 

kg21 said:
Sometimes for me it's the 13 attempts. It seems like our staff doesn't think we can throw the ball. Is that the qb or receivers?

We seem afraid to throw. I've had that feeling all year.
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Yeah, but for as much as people are shitting on the offense, we put up 358 yards, averaged 8.4 yards per pass attempt, and 4.9 per rush in pretty crappy conditions against a solid defense. Take away a missed field goal, Ky's fumble, a fluke INT, and opting to kneel instead of score at the end, and this offense isn't far from putting up 30+ last night. Not saying it was a masterpiece, but the criticism seems a little overboard all around tonight.
 

Replacement Gopher said:
Keep playing for the fans who have stayed up on Tuesday night to watch and support the team. Do it for the players - on both teams.

I truly believe we aren’t even playing in this bowl of we aren’t so conservative.
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The quicker that game could have ended, the better. Kneeling put this boring spectacle out of its misery.
 

EG#9 said:
I saw Jah Joyner have a couple nice reps at End, did any other young guys stand out? I saw Geers get in at TE and Boe played C, but I admittedly did not focus on their individual run blocking. He didn't really have to make a play, but it was still nice to see Dixon have an interception as another guy we'll count on to play a larger role at some point.

Are we done with the wildcat? Second straight game where Kramer hasn't seen the field. Hopefully he's not injured and this is more of a philosophical change.

Edit: One last thing and I don't want to make a big deal of it, but the timeout at the end by PJ struck me as odd. I could understand it against Wisconsin, but in this scenario where we were going out of our way to not score at the end it seemed to kind of show up WVU which I am sure was not the intent. To see Kieft almost get hurt on the 3rd down prior to the timeout was rough. In the future I'd hope we'd just score the TD or do the regular kneel 4 times and give them 20 seconds instead of 6 or whatever.
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I never want to see a kneel down where we are unable to run out the entire game clock.

I especially don’t want to see that after 1:00 am EST on a Tuesday bowl game.
 

Replacement Gopher said:
I never want to see a kneel down where we are unable to run out the entire game clock.

I especially don’t want to see that after 1:00 am EST on a Tuesday bowl game.
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Agreed. Didn’t understand it then and don’t now. If you’re worried about guys getting hurt, put in the backups. I’m sure there were a ton of guys on the sideline who would’ve loved to get in there. Instead we just kind of made it look awkward and embarrassing for WVU
 

upnorthkid said:
Agreed. Didn’t understand it then and don’t now. If you’re worried about guys getting hurt, put in the backups. I’m sure there were a ton of guys on the sideline who would’ve loved to get in there. Instead we just kind of made it look awkward and embarrassing for WVU.
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My thought exactly. Once Tanner got that first down, the entire offense should have been replaced with the second unit. Two things would have been accomplished. 1. You reward all the hard work the second team guys have put in all year and 2. You get to have the first team be applauded by the fans at the game one final time.
The ending was fitting though as it matched the sloppiness of the entire game.
 

kg21 said:
Sometimes for me it's the 13 attempts. It seems like our staff doesn't think we can throw the ball. Is that the qb or receivers?

We seem afraid to throw. I've had that feeling all year.
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I can see that, I think it was just the kind of game that unfolded. We moved the ball all day on them and would have had a lot of points but for issues outside of his control (kneeling (4 times) at the 5, fumbling at the 5, and missing a chip shot field goal). I think in those situations, PJ is going to run the ball a lot, especially considering the field conditions.

I hear you, but I don't get a sense we were afraid to throw last night. I think the only things that could stop us were the field conditions, turnover, or a sack and PJ played to that.
 

kg21 said:
Sometimes for me it's the 13 attempts. It seems like our staff doesn't think we can throw the ball. Is that the qb or receivers?

We seem afraid to throw. I've had that feeling all year.
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Or, it’s the fact that our two running backs averaged almost 7 yards a carry today. Being able to throw the ball is great, and I’d like to be able to know that we can, but if you’re marching down the field running, why make a change just for change’s sake?
 



Gophers1992 said:
Yeah, but for as much as people are shitting on the offense, we put up 358 yards, averaged 8.4 yards per pass attempt, and 4.9 per rush in pretty crappy conditions against a solid defense. Take away a missed field goal, Ky's fumble, a fluke INT, and opting to kneel instead of score at the end, and this offense isn't far from putting up 30+ last night. Not saying it was a masterpiece, but the criticism seems a little overboard all around tonight.
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We do that a lot. We scored 18 points, though.
 

skyman31 said:
Or, it’s the fact that our two running backs averaged almost 7 yards a carry today. Being able to throw the ball is great, and I’d like to be able to know that we can, but if you’re marching down the field running, why make a change just for change’s sake?
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When you run like we do, it should not be hard to throw it. They are all looking run.

The pass should be there all day. We literally can't do it very often. Something is off.

For example, we couldn't run the ball for shit against Illinois and BG. The pass did not seem to be an option.
 

kg21 said:
We do that a lot. We scored 18 points, though.
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I get it, it wasn't pretty, but I never really felt like the game was in doubt. Not at all saying there isn't a lot to improve upon, but I'm happy.
 

GFBfan said:
My thought exactly. Once Tanner got that first down, the entire offense should have been replaced with the second unit. Two things would have been accomplished. 1. You reward all the hard work the second team guys have put in all year and 2. You get to have the first team be applauded by the fans at the game one final time.
The ending was fitting though as it matched the sloppiness of the entire game.
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Agreed, the game was sloppy. For me, kneeling at the end and still turning the ball over on downs was a continuation of a lack of order on offense.

One would have thought, after admittedly playing for FGs against Iowa, we would take a stance that says when we get in the red zone we try to score a touchdown or let the final second of the clock expire. We did neither yesterday.

In addition to WV cheerleaders I wanted to see a bit of a change in mindset from the one that saw us run 8 straights times at the end of the first half against Iowa before kicking a FG as time expired, and the sloppiness of the end of the game didn’t really do much for me.
 

As I said in another thread, I think Fleck decided that, as soon as the Gophers had a "safe" lead, Fleck was going to shut down the offense and just try to run out the clock - due to the field conditions.

with the field conditions, I think Fleck was trying to avoid injuries and turnovers, so he decided to let the defense win the game. WV had 1 decent drive all game.

This was the equivalent of a basketball team (before the shot clock) going into the 4-corner offense to run out the last 5 minutes of a game and protect a lead.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
As I said in another thread, I think Fleck decided that, as soon as the Gophers had a "safe" lead, Fleck was going to shut down the offense and just try to run out the clock - due to the field conditions.

with the field conditions, I think Fleck was trying to avoid injuries and turnovers, so he decided to let the defense win the game. WV had 1 decent drive all game.

This was the equivalent of a basketball team (before the shot clock) going into the 4-corner offense to run out the last 5 minutes of a game and protect a lead.
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You want to avoid injuries. Don’t nurse a 12 point lead, Step on their throat and put the game out of reach so back ups can play.
 

GFBfan said:
You want to avoid injuries. Don’t nurse a 12 point lead, Step on their throat and put the game out of reach so back ups can play.
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Fully agreed. You’re one broken play away from a one score game, an onside kick, all that bs if you let inferior teams hang around or lead. I love that we can control the game and overpower teams but I’d love it if we’d put them away (saw what you will about “never in doubt” because we’ve all seen teams painfully lose games they shouldn’t in this fashion) and get our backups more run too.
 

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